Mary Lou and I observed our local Bald Eagle nest from about 8:00 to 8:45 AM this morning. The female was feeding the eaglets when we arrived:

She flew off the nest after about 10 minutes and roosted in the melaleucas
for the rest of the time we observed them:

The chicks were up and alert for a minute or so, then rested down low in the nest. It’s getting hard to tell the two largest apart– I thought they were arranged (left to right) from oldest to youngest, but now I’m not sure. The middle appears taller, but the left one seems to have less down on its head. If the second is a female, she will be larger than an older male before fledging. I will use this photo on the “Name the Baby Eagles” poll page unless someone comes up with a better one and will give me permission to post it there:

Only about 5 minutes later, the male adult (his distinguishing brown feather tail tip was better seen on another photo) flew to the nest. Upon arriving, he either dropped the prey as he began to land, or saw that there was no food in the nest, as he never entered the nest and quickly dropped down and away. He returned only about 5 minutes later with prey:

The youngest of the three eaglets, in foreground took quite a bit of food, while the other two appeared to have already eaten their fill:

For the first time in over two years of watching this nest, we were delighted to have a Swallow-tailed Kite circle around the nest tree and then pass directly overhead before disappearing to the north: